The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-02-03
NOT A DELUSION.
Sermon by Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, d. d.
How Millions of the Human Race Have
Been Deluded" Into Better Lives
and Brighter Hopes-A Few
Notable Examples.

took for his text part of the twenty-frst
verse of the twenty. first chapter Of Ezekiel:
"He made his arrows bright, he consulted
with images, he looked in the liver" The
sermon was as follows:
Two modes Of divination by which the
King Of Babylon proposed to find out the will
of God: He took bundle Of arrows, put
them together, mixed them up, then pulled
forth one, and by the inscription on 1t de-
cided which city he should first assault
Then an animal was slain, and by the
lighter or darker color of the liver the
brighter or darker prospect Of success was
inferred. That is the meaning Of the text:
He made his arrows bright he consulted
with images he looked in the liver"
Stupid delusionl And yet all the ages
have been filed with decisions. 1t seems
as if the world loves to be hood winked;
the delusion Of the text is only specimen
OF vast number Of deceits practiced upon
the human race.
In the latter part of the last century Jo-
hanna Southcote came forth pretending to
have Divine power, made prophesies, had
ohapels built in her honor, and one hundred
thousand disciples came forth to follow
her About five years before the birth of
Christ Apollonrus was born, and he came
forth, and after five years being speeches.,
according 20 the tradition, he healed the
sick anbraised the dead, and preached Writ
ne, Fhd, according to the myth, having
deceased, was brought to resurrection
The Delphic Oracle deceived vast null
titudes of peopleAthe Pythoness, seated in
the temple of Appolo, utteEing crazy
iargon from which the people guessed or
misguessed their individual or national
fortunes or misfortunes. The utterances
were of such a nature that you could read
them any way you wanted to read them. A
General going forth to battle, consulted
the Delphic Oracle, and he wanted to find
out whether he was going to be safe in the
battle or killed III the battle, and the
answer came forth from the Delphic
Oracle in such words that if you put the
comma before the word never" it means
one thing, and if you put the comma after
the word never" 1t means another thing
just opposite The message from the
Delphic Oracle to the General was: go
forth, return never in battle shalt thou
perish" If he was killed that was ac-
cordIng to the Delphic Oracle; if he came
home safely, that was according to the
Delphic Oracle.
So the ancient augures deceived the peo-
pie. The priests of those auguries, by the
flight of birds, or by the information of thun-
der, or by the inside appearance Of slain
animals, told the fortunes or misfortunes
of individuals or nations The sibyls de-
ceived the people. The sibyls were sup.
posed to be INSPIRE women who lived IN
caves and who wrote the skyline books
afterwards purchased by Tarquin the
PROUD, So ate as the year 1929 man
arDse in New York, pretending 10 be Dr.
vine being and played his part 80 well
that wealthy merchants became his disc.
pies and threw their fortunes into his dis.
Cipleship.
And 50 in all ages there have been NEGRO
mancies, incantations, WitchCrafts, sorcer
les, magical arts, entertainments, divlna.
tons and delusions The one Of the
text was only a specimen Of that which
has been transpiring IN all ages of the
world. None of these delusiops accom-
plished any good; they deceived. they
pauperized the people, they were as cruel
as they were absurd; they opened no hos.
pitfalls, they healed No wounds, they wiped
away no tears, they emancipated no serf-
dom.
But there are those who say that all these
decisions combined are as nothing COM
pared with the delusion now abroad in the
world-the delusion Of the Christian re-
lgiOn That deluslon has to-day two hun
dred million dupes. 1t proposes to encirCle
the earth with it's girdle That which has
been called delusion has already over
Swallowed the Appalachian range on this
side of the sea, and it has overshadoWed
the Balkan and Caucasian ranges on the
other side the sea; it has con-
quered England and the United
States. This champion delusion, this
hoax, this swindle of the ages, as it has
been called, has gone forth to conquer the
islands of the Pacific; the Melanasia and
~, II,
have already surrendered to the delusion.
Yea, it has conquered the Indian archi-
pelago, and BorneO, and Sumatra, and
Celebes and Java have fallen under its
wiles. In the Fiji Islands, where there are
130, 600 people, 102, 900 have already become
the dupes of this Christian religion, and if
things go on as theAare now going on, and
if the influence Of this great hallucination
of the ages can not be stopped, it will
swallow the globe.
Supposing then, that Christianity is the
delusion of the centuries, as some have
pronounced II, l propose this morning to
show you what has been accomplished by
this chimera, this fallacy, this hoax. this
swindle of the ages.
I'm the first place, remark that this de-
fusion Of the Christian religion has made
wonderful transformations Of human char
acter. l will go down the aisle of any
church in Chrstendom and 1 will find on
either side that aisle those who were once
protiigate, profane, uuclean Of speech and
unclean Of action, drunken and lost. But
by the power of this delusiOn Of the Chris
tian religion they have been completely
transformed, and now they are kind and
amiable, and genial and loving, and useful
Everybody sees the change. Under the
nf "a
quit their former associates, and
whereas they once found their chief de-
light among those who gambled and swOre
and raced horses, now they find their
chief JOY among those who go TO prayer
meetings and churches so complete is tins
deluslon. Yea, their own families have
noticed it; the wife has noticed it; the
children have noticed it. The money that
went for rum, now goes for books and for
Clothes and for education. He is a new
man; all who know him say there has
been a wonderful change W hat is the
cause of this changei This great hallu-
cination Of the Christian religion. There
~ as much difference between what he is
now and what he once was as between "a
rose and nettle, as between dove and
vnlture, as between day and night.
Tremendous deluson.
AumlrdI Il affagut, one OF the most adj
mired men Of the American navy, early
became victim of this Christian delusion,
and seated, not long before his death, at
Long Branch, he was giving some friends
an account Of his early life. He said
my father went down in behalf of the United
States Government TO put an end to Aaron
Burrs rebellion. was cab1n-boy, and went
along with him l could swear like an old salt;
could gamble in every style of gambling;
knew all the wicledness there was at that